Christmas history also is a love story

Jane Ganahl, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Monday, December 22, 1997

"Earl would sing to me in the morning, and again at night before we went to bed - in one of the 10 languages he knew. There was German, Swedish, French and of course Bulgarian. Can you imagine being married to such a man?"

Alice Lawson Count's eyes shine brightly when she speaks of her late husband, Earl Count, the anthropologist and author who became known as "the chronicler of Christmas" 50 years ago after writing a ground-breaking book "4,000 Years of Christmas." A published musician and historical musicologist herself, Alice Count knew when they met, already late in life, that they were kindred souls.

"He had lost his wife, and I had lost my husband, and we were both living at Rossmoor," said Count, smiling. A quick-witted beauty of 82 with close-cropped silver hair and fashionably huge eyeglasses, Count now lives in The City's Pine Towers. "I saw him at a meeting, and told my friend, "There's a man I could marry.' "

And so it happened, in the fall of 1984. They were 70 and 84 years old, and madly in love.

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"We had 12 wonderful, wonderful years together," she said, sighing. "And I had so hoped to get him through three centuries! Because he was born in 1899, you know."

But it was not meant to be; Earl Count died of cancer a year ago, at 97.

"When death came, I was with him. He accepted it with peace; it was beautiful. But I was pretty broken up about it," admits Count, with a quaver in her voice.

Strangely, it was her husband's obituary in the New York Times that would lead Count into a new project, one that would help channel her grief and preserve her loved one's memory.

East Bay publisher Ray Riegert, of Ulysses Press, read in Earl Count's obituary about "4,000 Years of Christmas," a lyrical treatise on the origins of modern yuletide practices that the Times said had "piqued the public's interest" when it was first published in 1948.

"I was . . . really taken by this obituary of the man they called "the chronicler of Christmas,' " said Riegert, whose company publishes mostly religious nonfiction.

"When I saw that Dr. Count's widow lived in the Bay Area, I got in touch with Alice and suggested we bring back her late husband's book, as a sort of memorial to him."

A labor of love&lt;

With her help, they located the original text; Alice Count also assisted in finding illustrations for the new book.

"But I hardly changed a word! Earl would not have let me!" she said, laughing.

Released just weeks ago, the new version of "4,000 Years of Christmas" has already made a splash in the publishing world. Chosen by Book of the Month Club, One Spirit Book Club and Quality Paperback Book Club, the book also was snapped up by almost every major chain. For Count, the gratification is enormous.

"Oh my, this was such a labor of love! And to see it so well received . . . ," she said, her voice trailing off and her hands folded in her lap. "Well, this was nothing less than the summation of our relationship, this book. It's like still having Earl with me."

She thinks the message her husband was trying to impart 50 years ago will be even better received today.

"Basically, it's that we should be aware of the history of Christmas, because it adds substance to the spirit of the season. And I think the time is right, because ours is becoming a more international culture, and we're becoming more aware of our heritage and history."

Telling the story&lt;

In "4,000 Years of Christmas," religious and nonreligious traditions are illuminated. For example, many modern Christmas traditions began in Babylonia more than 4,000 years ago, as part of a festival that celebrated the renewal of the world for another year.

The festival inspired what became the "12 days of Christmas," the giving of presents, the Yule log, singers who went from house to house, feasts and church processions with lights and song. All this, centuries before Christ was born.

According to Earl Count, Dec. 25 was chosen as the date Christ was born (since no one was sure of the actual date), because it was celebrated in ancient Rome as the festival of Saturnalia, the date when the sun was at its lowest ebb, ready to increase again and impart its strength. Saturnalia also was the origin of other modern customs such as "decking the halls" : Romans hung greenery on the walls and illuminated the greenery with lights and candles to ward off spirits of darkness.

Alice Count says the historical aspects of the holiday should serve to bring the world closer together.

"Someday soon, I think the religions of the world will become one," she said emphatically. "If the book has a point, it's that we should look for our common ground."

Her beloved husband agreed, he wrote in the epilogue 50 years ago:

"Christmas is a spontaneous drama of the common folk, a prayer, a hymn. The lifeblood of a people is its traditions, and Christmas has become great because men and women have given to it their deepest and most enduring selves.

"Could we, at Christmas, stand away from Europe and the countries that have sprung from her across the seas, we should behold all of them doing the same thing, yet each in a way that is also peculiar to itself. And when our fingers touch their Christmas, we are feeling their flesh and bone." &lt;